Jean-Ah Poquelin

At first the South was described as being low water willow, filled with numerous bushes and marshy. The description in the beginning of the short story gave a feel of dark and gloomy swamp lands. There was water everywhere with aquatic plants and reptiles all around. There is a vast amount of land around each house, keeping everyone seperated from the other. The land and the house reminded me of old, worn down, and unkept scenery. All this portrays the old South. In "The Skeleton Key" the setting shown was just like that of the setting portrayed in "Jean-Ah Poquelin." When reading this story I pictured the scenery from "The Skeleton Key." The small town feeling with a bunch of land around each plantation on the top of the hill is quickly demolished by the coming of modern society. The idea of a city building around the swamps and conforming that area. Suburban areas were starting to be built up around the home of Jean-Ah Poquelin. Streets were also put in place, canals dried up, and paved areas of the swamp. The Gothic is evident with many of the discriptors of gothic being displayed throughout the story. It has evidence of the supernatural, revolving around the house and the ghost that everyone believes to have seen. This also accounts for the horror/terror. When Mr. White is at the house the reader is intrigued by the walking ghost. The reader is intellectually stimulated and it challenges the reasoning of the reader. The sublime and the sense of mystery are also fulfilled with the idea of Jean's haunted house. These qualities just described are elements of the grotesque. You could make an arguement for the hero being Mr. White fighting off the villians of the rest of society. The discriptors of gothic are seen in this short story. The plantation and swampy setting of southern gothic go along with the old castle of gothic literature. The elements of souther gothic are clearly displayed all over this short story.